Chapter one...Perseverance...

So in our mini series looking at the things that going into a positive mindset, the first on the list is :

"Perseverance"

Whats that then? Well we all know it's the Ability to keep on keeping on. To "do" when doing seems pointless and to work when the rewards seem unfairly sparse. 

But it's much more than that. after all Einstein himself defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting different results" So persevering in and of itself doesn't necessarily gain you anything. 

Einstein however may have hit on the very heart of the matter. Results. It is the results we wish to achieve that drives the work we do and our perseverance at it. So we must first be absolutely clear what those desired results, or outcomes are. It has been said that those who don't know where they are going are almost certain to arrive...so do you know where you're headed? Do you have a clear direction if not a clear path? 

The end goal need not be in plain sight, after all the future is ever uncertain,  but we need to know what the end goal is and where it is in order to have direction towards it. 

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. 

Henry David Thoreau

Once we have a direction, and our efforts are aligned then one must look at the journey we intend to take, from where we are, towards where we are headed. This is almost never a straight easy path. Acceptance of that is key to developing the mindful perseverance of character to keep on keeping on. It is also incumbent upon us to know exactly where we are currently...not as straight forward emotionally or even commercially as some might think!  The human minds capacity for self deception is limitless! 

“Failure is an opportunity.

If you blame someone else,

there is no end to the blame.

Therefore the Master

fulfils her own obligations

and corrects her own mistakes.

She does what she needs to do

and demands nothing of others.” 

― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

The above passage makes reference to failure as an opportunity. Looking for the silver lining at all times, searching for the lesson, so that we can avoid repeating the same errors. The second and third lines are critical in this process. "blame does not end if you blame someone else." Thus you will be destined to repeat the same patterns endlessly, unless you break the blame cycle and assert ownership of the circumstance in which you find yourself as a direct consequence of the decisions up to that point.

Taking ownership of the circumstances and responsibility for our part in them opens the mind to a conscious, and blameless, change in our actions, such that our route to our end goal is replotted in light of the new information. If you're travelling to Glasgow from London via car, and you find the M1 is blocked, you merely plot a route around the blockage. So it is with failure.  Failure is ALWAYS temporary by nature and only becomes permanent if we choose it to be so by changing or abandoning our goal, letting go of our persistence of effort towards it. 

What perseverance is not however is blindly chasing a course of action doomed to failure, and thus is placed upon us the obligation to learn from the past and be flexible in the reassessment of the goal or objective, and our path towards it. As a consequence, when one fails, and one will, inevitably, do so at points along this path, perseverance must be allied with observations....which is the topic of the next chapter...

Until next  time.. keep it

#stubbornlyoptimistic